COMMENT OF THE DAY: PLAYING COY “’Yes, I’m calling about the property that’s not for sale. No, I’m not interested in buying it.’†[ricemilitaryboy, commenting on Not Even Trying]
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THE LAWSUIT BEHIND THE PAPER AT THE 11TH ST. CAFE 
Reporter Purva Patel documents the extensive menu of lawsuits embroiling “more unlucky than most” Ruggles Grill owner Bruce Molzan — which provides Swamplot a terrific opportunity to showcase one of the several photos of the papered-over sign at the now-formerly-Ruggles 11th St. Cafe in the Heights sent in by readers earlier this month. Molzan has charged the cafe with trademark infringement, and tells Patel he pulled out of an operating agreement with the 11th St. restaurant “because he considered the quality of the food there poor.” But cafe owner Archie Patterson says Molzan refused to sign a partnership agreement after running the place for 2 months. Patterson says he had the word “Ruggles” on the signs covered — in advance of getting new ones — as soon as he heard about the worker walkout at Ruggles Grill. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
ST. STEPHEN’S LOSES APPEAL; MONTROSE H-E-B BEER AND WINE SALES BEGIN THURSDAY 
A judge today denied an appeal by St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, allowing the new Montrose H-E-B on the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama to begin pouring beer and wine for customers tomorrow at 2 pm. Earlier this month, County Judge Ed Emmett ruled that the St. Stephen’s building within 300 ft. of the new store’s property line at 1755 Sul Ross St. did not itself qualify as a private school under state alcohol rules, in part because fewer than 100 students attend courses at that particular location. [Prime Property; background; previously on Swamplot]
DOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS 
Best holiday wishes to all! Swamplot will be back on Tuesday, for last-minute Swamplot Award fun. Here’s your link to all the ballots. Time to vote! Photo: Architecture Center Houston
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY STILL MAKE IT HERE “Houston isn’t a small, postindustrial city like Portland where PhDs drive cabs because they’re there for the ‘quality of life.’ Houston is a big industrial city that still makes stuff. You can’t look at a ‘cruddy’ low-rise industrial or manufacturing district and wish to replace it with trendy lofts, because those industrial districts are a big part of the city’s prosperity. The oil company office jobs could choose to locate *anywhere*; they choose to locate in Houston because it’s close to where their industrial operations are.” [Keep Houston Houston, commenting on The Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl: The Official 2011 Ballot]
KITCHEN ETHICS: PERMIT OR NO PERMIT? “I’m not sure who to go to on this, but I live in Eastwood and am doing a total upgrade of my kitchen. I’m going back and forth on whether to go through the city permit process or not . . . am trying to figure out the pros and cons. We have guys doing the construction that will work with us either way on it. Any thoughts?” [Swamplot inbox]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YES, A RING ROAD EVEN FURTHER OUT THAN THE GRAND PARKWAY “I hate to be the one to break the news, but the next outer loop beyond Grand Parkway is already being planned. If you look at the land plan for Cross Creek Ranch, there’s a big right of way built into the western portion of the development. It is right close to the proposed terminus of the Westpark Toll Road and roughly aligns with FM 2855 to the north and Spur 10 to the south. Some of the economic development corporations and chambers of commerce out there have even begun tracing its route on their planning maps.” [TheNiche, commenting on The Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl: The Official 2011 Ballot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BIG DEMOLITION NEAR THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH “Just make sure you are upwind of the implosion. The dust cloud is full of nasties like respirable Silica and Aspergillus.” [Rocco, commenting on M.D. Anderson Tower Will Go Out with a Bang]
SHE WOULDN’T GET OUT OF BED, SO I SHOT HER 
A magazine for Houston real estate agents has this version of the backstory behind the body-in-the-bed photo featured in a Heights-area bungalow listing posted last week: “The current tenants are being evicted, and therefore, were uncooperative in making the home look attractive to any other buyers. They refused to clean it for showings and, clearly, even refused to move when [real estate agent Traye] Wise and his assistant stopped by to take interior photos for the listing website; Wise said he asked the husband if he could rouse his wife from bed so they could take just one photo of the bedroom’s interior sans tenants, and while the husband allegedly told his wife to get out of bed, she refused. ‘This was in no way done on purpose,’ Wise said about the bedroom photo. ‘It was supposed to be edited to take (the woman sleeping in bed) out. It was supposed to be Photoshopped, and my assistant put it up by mistake.’†[Houston Agent Magazine; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE APPLE HOUR OF POWER “Believe it or not. Just a few weeks ago I posted a mail to Tim Cook, no reply till now :), in which I suggested to buy the Crystal Cathedral Campus in Garden Grove. I have been there on several occasions (although I am a dutch citizen so it is not around the corner). It would be an excellent Apple campus where people can meet Apple and each other and where we all can build a platform where contemporary speakers like Deepak Chopra, Lynne McTaggart and many others who can tell us new things that can make this world a better place can be invited to share their knowledge. Can you imagine streaming to or downloading by the devices like the iPad, Apple TV iPhones and Macs in every corner of this planet? In that way preserving the heritage of that beautiful place and at the same time give it a destination that will appeal tot the entire world (community). Now it will be sold to a catholic church, in my opinion a loss of possibilities.” [Hans Noordsij, commenting on Comment of the Day: Apple’s Crystal Cathedral]
HOW THE RIVER OAKS HOUSE OF WOW BEGAN TO SPROUT 
Inspired by the enthusiasm of Swamplot commenters, Lisa Gray tracks down the story behind the looks-mild-from-the-street home of the Brill family, and its eclectic designer George Weinle: “They started with the dining room, which came to feel like something out of Oz. The custom-made dining-room table has an incredibly ornate pedestal: Weinle knew that Pat’s grandkids liked to play under the table, and he wanted them to have something to look at. Her Chippendale dining-room chairs are painted shocking mint green. An intricate red wooden chandelier that looks vaguely like a pagoda was made to George’s specifications; it hangs at the center of a ceiling painted to resemble a carousel top. Shiny blue woodwork fu dogs — the kind that guard Chinese restaurants — flank a doorway, and custom-made, vaguely Asian furnishings sprout as if of their own volition. The breakfast room, living room, entry way and library followed, bits and pieces at a time, done whenever Pat had the money. When George proposed the palm-tree pouf for the living room’s center, she called a retired decorator for a second opinion. “Either you’ll be a grand success or a laughingstock,” he told her. She took the chance. Twelve pillars in the living room? Gilding? More of those intricate wooden chandeliers? She said yes. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: APPLE’S CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL “Also, does anyone else think that the design looks more than a little like a protestant church, with the vaulted roof, minimal design, and the identical tables setup in rows looking like pews?” [JL, commenting on Comment of the Day: Apple Store Symbolism]
TINY “FREESTANDING” INNER-LOOP BARS AND RESTAURANTS ESCAPE INCREASED PARKING REQUIREMENTS [Note: Story corrected and updated below.] The planning commission has made a few adjustments to the proposed changes to the city’s parking rules it’s likely to forward to city council after a meeting today. The revised draft ordinance exempts freestanding restaurants smaller than 2,000 sq. ft. and bars smaller than 1,000 2,000 sq. ft. from the major increase in parking spaces the new rules will be requiring of most new eat-and-drinkeries — as long as they’re inside the 610 Loop. Also included: a major potential boon for bike parking. By providing 4 bicycle spaces in place of each required car space, new Inside-the-Loop businesses would be able to reduce their parking requirements by up to 10 percent. [Planning & Development (see 3 PDF links at bottom of page); previously on Swamplot] Update, 1:45 pm: As a few local restaurateurs have noted, the exemption may turn out to be not much of a change at all: “The major bright, flashing verbiage in that should be ‘free-standing,’” notes chef Justin Yu of the just-announced Oxheart. “I’ve looked for the past 4 years for a quality free standing building under that size. Unless I build it myself, it doesn’t exist.”
COMMENT OF THE DAY: APPLE STORE SYMBOLISM “Given that none of Apple’s execs are women, a glass ceiling is entirely appropriate.” [Brad, commenting on Highland Village Apple Store Will Have Glass Ceiling, Front, and Back]
KILGORE TROUT 2.0 “Some people have understandably asked how I can give up the platform for art writing that the Houston Chronicle provides in favor of resuming my escorting career while launching this strange new blog. Here’s the thing: the original Devon’s Diary — originally titled Devon the Escort’s Diary — which ran from 2001 to 2004, was actually a much bigger platform for art writing than the Chronicle’s chron.com and 29-95.com sites have ever been. On both sites, art traffic was anemic at best during my time at the paper. My art posts on Devon’s Diary, by contrast, were mixed in with posts related to escorting, sex and other parts of my life. As such, they were viewed by many more people than have ever read anything I’ve had to say as a Chronicle employee, contractor or freelancer (I’ve been all three). The unfortunate irony is that my art writing has gotten better since the early Devon days, only to make the impact of a tree that falls in the woods but doesn’t make a sound. . . . In its own way, Devon’s Diary created a generalized public sphere online, albeit one heavily titled toward a gay readership (though hardly exclusively). People came for the sex and got exposed to art while they stuck around.” — former Chronicle art critic Douglas Britt, now Devon Britt-Darby, on the road in Miami Beach.